Under the Apple Tree

Under the Apple Tree

(No. 3249)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1911.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was
sweet to my taste." Solomon's Song 2:3.

[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text is #1120, Volume
19–THE APPLE TREE IN THE WOODS.]

CHRIST known should be Christ used. The spouse knew her Beloved to be
like a fruit-bearing tree and at once she sat down under His shadow and
fed upon His fruit. It is a pity that we know so much about Christ and
yet enjoy Him so little. May our experience keep pace with our
knowledge and may that experience be composed of a practical using of
our Lord. Jesus casts a shadow, let us sit under it. Jesus yields
fruit, let us taste the sweetness of it. Depend upon it that the way to
learn more is to use what you know and, moreover, the way to learn a
Truth of God thoroughly is to learn it experimentally. You know a
Doctrine beyond all fear of contradiction when you have proved it for
yourself by personal test and trial. The bride in the Song as good as
says, "I am certain that my Beloved casts a shadow, for I have sat
under it, and I am persuaded that He bears sweet fruit, for I have
tasted of it." The best way of demonstrating the power of Christ to
save is to trust in Him and be, yourself, saved by Him–and of all
those who are sure of the Divinity of our holy faith, there are none so
certain as those who feel its Divine Power upon themselves! You may
reason yourself into a belief of the Gospel and you may, by further
reasoning, keep yourself orthodox–but a personal trial and an inward
knowing of the Truth are incomparably the best evidences. If Jesus is
as an apple tree among the trees of the woods, do not stay away from
Him, but sit under His shadow and taste His fruit! He is a Savior–do
not believe that fact and yet remain unsaved. As far as Christ is known
to you, so far make use of Him! Is not this sound common sense?

We would further remark that we are at liberty to make every possible
use of Christ. Shadow and fruit may both be enjoyed. Christ, in His
Infinite condescension exists for needy souls. Oh, let us say it over
again! It is a bold word, but it is true–as Christ Jesus, our Lord
exists for the benefit of His people! A Savior only exists to save. A
physician lives to heal. The Good Shepherd lives, yes, dies for His
sheep! Our Lord Jesus Christ has wrapped us about His heart–we are
intimately interwoven with all His offices, with all His honors, with
all His traits of Character, with all that He has done and with all
that He has yet to do! The sinners' Friend lives for sinners and
sinners may have Him and use Him to the uttermost! He is as free to us
as the air we breathe! What are fountains for but that the thirsty may
drink? What is the harbor for but that storm-tossed ships may there
find refuge? What is Christ for, but that poor guilty ones like
ourselves may come to Him and look and live–and afterwards may have
all our needs supplied out of His fullness?

We have thus the door set open for us and we pray that the Holy Spirit
may help us to enter in while we notice in the text two things which we
pray that you may enjoy to the fullest. First, the heart's rest in
Christ–"I sat down under His shadow with great delight." And secondly,
the heart's refreshment in Christ–"His fruit was sweet to my taste."

I. To begin with, we have here THE HEART'S REST IN CHRIST. To set this
forth, let us notice the character of the person who uttered this
sentence. She who said, "I sat down under His shadow with great
delight," was one who had known before what weary travel meant and,
therefore, valued rest The man who has never labored knows nothing of
the sweetness of repose. The loafer who has eaten bread he never
earned, from whose brow there never oozed a drop of honest sweat does
not deserve rest–and knows not what it is. It is to the laboring man
that rest is sweet! And when at last we come, toil-worn with many miles
of weary plodding, to a shaded place where we may comfortably "sit
down"–then are we filled with delight!

The spouse had been seeking her Beloved, and in looking for Him she had
asked where she was likely to find Him. "Tell me," she says, "O You
whom my soul loves, where You feed, where You make Your flock to rest
at noon." He told her to go and seek Him by the footsteps of the flock.
She did go her way, but after awhile she came to this resolve–"I will
sit down under His shadow." Many of you have been sorely wearied with
going your way to find peace. Some of you tried ceremonies and
multiplied them, and the priest came to your help, but he mocked your
hearts' distress. Others of you sought by various systems of thought to
come to an anchorage. But tossed from billow to billow, you found no
rest upon the seething sea of speculation. More of you tried by your
good works to go in rest to your consciences. You multiplied your
prayers, you poured out floods of tears. You hoped by alms-giving and
by the like that some merit might accrue to you and that your heart
might feel acceptance with God, and so have rest. You toiled and
toiled, like the men that were in the vessel with Jonah when they rowed
hard to bring their ship to land, but could not, for the sea worked and
was tempestuous. There was no escape for you that way and so you were
driven to another way–even to rest in Jesus! My heart looks back to
the time when I was under a sense of sin and sought with all my soul to
find peace, but could not discover it, high or low, in any place
beneath the sky! Yet when–

"Isaw One hanging on a tree"

as the Substitute for sin, then my heart sat down under His shadow with
great delight! My heart reasoned thus with herself–Did Jesus suffer in
myplace? Then I shall not suffer! Did He bear my sin? Then I do not
bear it! Did God accept His Son as my Substitute? Then He will never
smite me!Was Jesus acceptable with God as my Sacrifice? Then what
contents the Lord may well enough content me, so I will go no further,
but "sit down under His shadow," and enjoy a delightful rest!

She who said, "I sat down under His shadow with great delight," could
appreciate shade, for she had been sunburned. This was her exclamation,
"Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun has looked upon
me." She knew what heat meant, what the burning sun meant and,
therefore, shade was pleasant to her. You know nothing about the
deliciousness of shade till you travel in a thoroughly hot
country–then you are delighted with it! Did you ever feel the heat of
Divine Wrath? Did the great Sun–that Sun without variableness or
shadow of a turning–ever dart His hottest rays upon you–the rays of
His holiness and justice? Did you cower down beneath the scorching
beams of that great Light of God and say, "We are consumed by Your
anger"? If you have ever felt that, you have found it a very blessed
thing to come under the shadow of Christ's atoning Sacrifice! A shadow,
you know, is cast by a body coming between us and the light and
heat–and our Lord's most blessed body has come between us and the
scorching sun of Divine Justice, so that we sit under the shadow of His
mediation with great delight!

And now, if any other sun begins to scorch us, we fly to our Lord. If
domestic troubles, or business cares, or Satanic temptations, or inward
corruptions oppress us, we hasten to Jesus' shadow to hide under Him
and there "sit down" in the cool refreshment with great delight! The
interposition of our blessed Lord is the cause of our inward quiet. The
sun cannot scorch me, for it scorched Him. My troubles need not trouble
me, for He has taken my troubles and I have left them in His hands. "I
sat down under His shadow."

Mark well these two things concerning the spouse. She knew what it was
to be weary and she knew what it was to be sunburned–and just in
proportion as you, also, know these two things, your valuation of
Christ will rise! You who have never lingered under the wrath of God
have never prized the Savior! Water is of small value in this land of
brooks and rivers, and so you commonly sprinkle the roads with it. But
I guarantee you that if you were making a day's march over burning
sand, a cup of cold water would be worth a king's ransom! And so to
thirsty souls Christ is precious, but to none beside!

Now, when the spouse was sitting down, restful and delighted, she was
overshadowed. She says, "I sat down under His shadow." I do not know a
more delightful state of mind than to feel quite overshadowed by our
Beloved Lord. Here is my black sin, but there is His precious blood
overshadowing my sin and hiding it forever! Here is my condition by
nature, an enemy to God, but He who reconciled me to God by His blood
has overshadowed that, also, so that I forget that I was once an enemy
in the joy of being now a friend! I am very weak, but He is strong and
His strength overshadows my feebleness. I am very poor, but He has all
riches and His riches overshadow my poverty. I am most unworthy, but He
is so worthy that if I use His name, I shall receive as much as if I
were worthy! His worthiness overshadows my unworthiness! It is very
precious to put the truth the other way and say–If there is anything
good in me, it is not good when I compare

myself with Him, for His goodness quite eclipses and overshadows it!
Can I say that I love Him? So I do, but I hardly dare call it love, for
His love overshadows it. Did I suppose that I servedHim? So I would,
but my poor service is not worth mentioning in comparison with what He
has done for me! Did I think I had any degree of holiness? I must not
deny that His Spirit works in me–but when I think of His immaculate
life and all His Divine perfections, where am I? What am I? Have you
not sometimes felt this? Have you not been so overshadowed and hidden
under your Lord that you became as nothing? I know what it is to feel
that if I die in a workhouse, is does not matter as long as my Lord is
glorified. Mortals may cast out my name as evil, if they like, but what
does it matter since His dear name shall one day be printed in stars
across the sky? Let Him overshadow me–I delight that it should be so!

The spouse tells us that when she became quite overshadowed, then she
felt great delight. Great "I" never has great delight, for it cannot
bear to acknowledge a greater than itself, but the humble Believer
finds his delight in being overshadowed by His Lord! In the shade of
Jesus we have more delight than in any fancied light of our own. The
spouse had great delight. I trust that you Christian people have great
delight. But if not, you ought to ask yourselves whether you really are
the people of God. I like to see a cheerful countenance–yes, and to
hear of raptures in the hearts of those who are God's saints. There are
people who seem to think that religion and gloom are married and must
never be divorced. Pull down the blinds on Sunday and darken the rooms!
If you have a garden or a rose in bloom, try to forget that there are
such beauties–are you not to serve God as dolorously as you can? Put
your book under your arm and crawl to your place of worship in as
mournful a manner as if you were being marched to the whipping-post!
Act thus if you will, but give me that religion which cheers my heart,
fires my soul and fills me with enthusiasm and delight–for that is
likely to be the religion of Heaven–and it agrees with the experience
of the Inspired Song!

Although I trust that we know what delight means, I question if we have
enough of it to describe ourselves as sitting down in the enjoyment of
it. Do you give yourselves enough time to sit at Jesus' feet? There i s
the place of delight! Do you abide in it? Sit down under His shadow. "I
have no leisure," cries one. Try and make a little. Steal it from your
sleep if you cannot get it anywhere else. Grant leisure to your heart.
It would be a great pity if a man never spent five minutes with his
wife but was forced to be always hard at work. Why, that is slavery, is
it not? Shall we not, then, have time to commune with our Best-Beloved?
Surely, somehow or other, we can squeeze out a little season in which
we shall have nothing else to do but to sit down under His shadow with
great delight! When I take my Bible and need to feed on it for myself,
I generally get to thinking about preaching upon the text and what I
should say to you from it. This will not do! I must get away from that
and forget that there is a Tabernacle, that I may sit personally at
Jesus' feet! And, oh, there is an intense delight in being overshadowed
by Him! He is near you and you know it. His dear Presence is as
certainly with you as if you could see Him, for His influence surrounds
you! Often have I felt as if Jesus leaned over me, as a friend might
look over my shoulder. Although no cool shade comes over your brow, yet
you may as much feel His shadow as if it did, for your heart grows
calm–and if you have been wearied with the family, or troubled with
the Church, or vexed with yourself–you come down from the chamber
where you have seen your Lord and you feel braced for the battle of
life– ready for its troubles and its temptations because you have seen
the Lord!

"I sat down," she said, "under His shadow with great delight." How
great that delight was she could not tell, but she sat down as one
overpowered with it, needing to sit still under the load of bliss! I do
not like to talk much about the secret delights of Christians because
there are always some around us who do not understand our meaning. But
I will venture to say this much–if worldlings could but even guesswhat
are the secret joys of Believers, they would give their eyes to share
them with us! We have troubles and we admit it. We expect to have them,
but we have joys which are frequently excessive. We would not like that
others should be witnesses of the delight which now and then tosses our
soul into a very tempest of joy. You know what it means, do you not?
When you have been quite alone with the heavenly Bridegroom, you wanted
to tell the angels of the sweet love of Christ to you, a poor unworthy
one! You even wished to teach the golden harps fresh music, for seraphs
know not the heights and depths of Grace as you know them.

The spouse had great delight–and we know that she had for this one
reason–she did not forget it. This verse and the whole Song is a
remembrance of what she had enjoyed. She says, "I sat down under His
shadow." It may have been a month, it may have been years ago, but she
had not forgotten it! The joys of fellowship with God are written in
marble. "Engraved as in eternal brass" are memories of communion with
Christ Jesus! "Above fourteen years ago," says the Apostle, "I knew a
man."Ah, it was worth remembering all those years! He had not told his
delight, but he had kept it stored up. He says, "I knew a man in Christ
above fourteen years ago, whether in the body, I cannot tell; or
whether out of the body, I cannot tell; God knows," so great had his
delights been! When we look back, we forget birthdays, holidays and
bonfire-nights which we have spent after the manner of men, but we
readily recall our times of fellowship with the Well-Beloved! We have
known our Tabors, our times of transfiguration-fellowship and, like
Peter, we remember when we were "with Him in the holy mount." Our head
has leaned upon the Master's bosom and we can never forget the intense
delight! Nor will we fail to put on record for the good of others the
joys with which we have been indulged.

Now I leave this first part of the subject, only noticing how
beautifully natural it is. There was a tree and she sat down under the
shadow. There was nothing strained, nothing formal. So ought true piety
always be consistent with common sense, with that which seems most
fitting, most comely, most wise and most natural. There is Christ, we
may enjoy Him–let us not despise the privilege!

II. The second part of our subject is THE HEART'S REFRESHMENT IN
CHRIST. "His fruit was sweet to my taste." Here I will not enlarge, but
give you thoughts in brief which you can beat out afterwards.

She did not feast upon the fruit of the tree till first she was under
the shadow of it. There is no knowing the excellent things of Christ
till you trust Him. Not a single sweet apple shall fall to the lot of
those who are outside the shadow. Come and trust Christ–and then all
that there is in Christ shall be enjoyed by you. O unbelievers, what
blessings you miss! If you will but sit down under His shadow, you
shall have all things. But if you will not, neither shall any good
thing of Christ's be yours.

But as soon as she was under the shadow, then the fruit was all hers.
"I sat down under His shadow," she says, and then, "His fruit was sweet
to my taste." Do you believe in Jesus, Friend? Then Jesus Christ
Himself is yours! And if you own the tree, you may as well eat the
fruit. Since He Himself becomes yours altogether, then His redemption
and the pardon that comes of it, His living power, His mighty
intercession, the glories of His Second Advent and all that belong to
Him are made over to you for your personal and present use and
enjoyment! All things are yours since Christ is yours! Only mind that
you imitate the spouse– when she found that the fruit was hers, she
ate it Copy her closely in this. It is a great fault in many Believers
that they do not appropriate the promises and feed on them. Do not err
as they do! Under the shadow, you have a right to eat the fruit. Deny
not yourselves the sacred entertainment.

Now it would appear, as we read the text, that she obtained this fruit
without effort. The proverb says, "He who would gain the fruit must
climb the tree." But she did not climb, for she says, "I sat down under
His shadow." I suppose the fruit dropped down to her. I know that it is
so with us. We no longer spend our money for that which is not bread,
and our labor for that which satisfies not–we sit under our Lord's
shadow and we eat that which is good–and our soul delights itself in
sweetness. Come, Christian, enter into the calm rest of faith by
sitting down beneath the Cross and you shall be fed even to the
fullest!

The spouse rested while feasting–she sat and ate. So, O true Believer,
rest while you are feeding upon Christ. The spouse says, "I sat and I
ate." Had she not told us, in the former Chapter, that the King sat at
His table? See how like the Church is to her Lord and the Believer to
his Savior! We also sit down and we eat, even as the King does. Right
royally are we entertained. His joy is in us and His peace keeps our
hearts and minds!

Further, notice that as the spouse fed upon this fruit, she had a
relish for it. It is not every palate that likes every fruit. Never
dispute with other people about tastes of any sort, for agreement is
not possible. That dainty which to one person is the most delicious, is
to another nauseous. And if there were a competition as to which fruit
is preferable to all the rest, there would probably be almost as many
opinions as there are fruits! But blessed is he who has a relish for
Christ Jesus! Dear Hearer, is He sweet to you? Then He is yours! There
never was a heart that relished Christ but what Christ belonged to that
heart! If you have been feeding on Him and He is sweet to you, go on
feasting, for He who gave you a relish gives you Himself to satisfy
your appetite!

What are the fruits which come from Christ? Are they not peace with
God, renewal of heart, joy in the Holy Spirit, love to the brethren?
Are they not regeneration, justification, sanctification, adoption and
all the blessings of the Covenant of Grace? And are they not each and
all sweet to our taste? As we have fed upon them, have we not said,
"Yes, these things are pleasant, indeed. There are none like them–let
us live upon them forevermore." Now sit down, sit down and feed. It
seems a strange thing that we should have to persuade people to do
that, but in the spiritual world, things are very different from what
they are in the natural. In the case of most men, if you put a roast
before them and a knife and

fork, they do not need many arguments to persuade them to fall to! But
I will tell you when they will not do it, and that is when they are
full! And I will also tell you when they will do it, and that is when
they are hungry. Even so, if your soul is weary after Christ the
Savior, you will feed on Him. But if not, it is useless for me to
preach to you, or bid you come. However, you who are there, sitting
under His shadow, may hear Him utter these words, "Eat, O Friend.
Drink, yes, drink abundantly." You cannot have too much of these good
things–the more of Christ, the better the Christian!

We know that the spouse feasted herself right heartily with this food
from the Tree of Life, for in later days, she wanted more. Will you
kindly read on in the 4th verse? The verse which contains our text
describes, as it were, her first love to her Lord, her country love,
her rustic love. She went to the woods and she found Him there like an
apple tree and she enjoyed Him as one relishes a ripe apple in the
country. But she grew in Grace–she learned more of her Lord and she
found that her Best-Beloved was King. I should not wonder but what she
learned the Doctrine of the Second Advent, for then she began to sing,
"He brought me to the banqueting house," as much as to say–He did not
merely let me know Him out in the fields as the Christ in His
humiliation, but He brought me into the royal palace and, since He is a
King, He brought forth a banner with His own brave escutcheon and He
waved it over me while I was sitting at the table–and the motto of
that banner was LOVE.

She grew very full of this. It was such a grand thing to find a great
Savior, a triumphant Savior, an exalted Savior– but it was too much
for her and she became sick of soul with the excessive glory of what
she had learned. And do you see what her heart craves for? She longs
for her first simple joys, those countrified delights. "Comfort me with
apples," she says. Nothing but the old joys will revive her! Did you
ever feel like that? I have been satiated with delight in the love of
Christ as a glorious, exalted Savior when I have seen Him riding on His
white horse and going forth conquering and to conquer. I have been
overwhelmed when I have beheld Him in the midst of the Throne of God
with all the brilliant assembly of angels and archangels adoring Him.
And my thoughts have gone forward to the day when He shall descend with
all the pomp of God–and make all kings and princes shrink into
nothingness before the Infinite Majesty of His Glory! Then I have felt
as though I must fall at His feet as dead at the sight of Him and I
have needed somebody to come and tell me over again the old, old story
of how He died in order that I might be saved! His Throne overpowers
me! Let me gather fruit from His Cross! Bring me apples from "the tree"
again. I am awe-struck while in the palace! Let me get away to the
woods again. Give me an apple plucked from the tree, such as I have
given out to boys and girls in His family, such an apple as this, "Come
unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest." Or this, "This Man receives sinners." Give me a promise from the
basket of the Covenant! Give me the simplicity of Christ–let me be a
child and feast on apples, again, if Jesus is the apple tree! I would
gladly go back to Christ on the tree in my place, Christ overshadowing
me, Christ feeding me. This is the happiest state to live in! Lord,
give us these apples evermore! You remember the old story we told years
ago of Jack the huckster, who used to sing–

"I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my
All-in-all." Those who knew him were astonished at his constant
composure. They had a world of doubts and fears and so they asked him
why he never doubted. "Well," he said, "I can't doubt but what I am a
poor sinner, and nothing at all, for I know that, and feel it every
day. But why should I doubt that Jesus Christ is my All-in-All, for He
says He is?" "Oh," said his questioner, "I have my ups and downs." "I
don't," said Jack, "I can never go up, for I am a poor sinner and
nothing at all. And I cannot go down, for Jesus Christ is my
All-in-All." He wanted to join the Church, and they said he must tell
his experience. He said, "All my experience is that I am a poor sinner,
and nothing at all, and Jesus Christ, is my All-in-All." "Well," they
said, "when you come before the Church Meeting, the minister may ask
you questions." "I can't help it," said Jack, "all I know I will tell
you. And this is all I know–

'I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my
All-in-All. He was admitted into the Church and continued with the
brethren, walking in holiness. But that was still all his experience
and you could not get him beyond it. "Why," said one Brother, "I
sometimes feel so full of Grace, I feel so advanced in sanctification,
that I begin to be very happy." "I never do," said Jack. "I am a poor
sinner, and nothing at all." "But then," said the other, "I go down
again and think I am not saved because I am not as sanctified as I used
to be." "But I never doubt my salvation," said Jack, "because Jesus
Christ is my All-in-All and He never alters." That simple

story is grandly instructive, for it sets forth a plain man's faith in
a plain salvation. It is the likeness of a soul under the apple tree
resting in the shade and feasting on the fruit!

Now, at this time, I want you to think of Jesus, not as a Prince, but
as an apple tree! And when you have done this, I pray you to sit down
under His shadow. It is not much to do. Any child, when it is hot, can
sit down in a shadow. I want you, next, to feed on Jesus. Any simpleton
can eat apples when they are ripe upon the tree. Come and take Christ,
then. You who never came before, come now! Come and welcome! You who
have came often and have entered into the palace, and are reclining at
the banqueting table–you lords and peers of Christianity–come to the
common woods and to the common apple tree, where poor saints are shaded
and fed. You had better come under the apple tree like poor sinners
such as I am, and be once more shaded with branches and comforted with
apples, or else you may faint beneath the palace glories! The best of
saints are never better than when they eat their first fare and are
comforted with the apples which were their first Gospel feast!

The Lord Himself bring forth His own sweet fruit to you. Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GALATIANS5.

Verse 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made
us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."You are
not under the Law, but under Grace. Do not subject yourselves,
therefore, to legal principles. Do not live as if you were working for
wages and were earning your own salvation. Do not submit yourselves to
the ritual and commandments of man which would rob you of your liberty
in many ways. But having once become free men, never again wear the
chain of a slave–'Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free.' Because you are the seed of Isaac, who was born
according to the promise, you are not the children of the
bondwoman–you are not Ishmaelites–therefore, as you were born free,
as Christ has made you free by virtue of your new birth, stand fast in
that glorious liberty."

2, 3. Behold I Paul say unto you, that if you are circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is
circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole Law. If you begin
being saved by the Law, you must go through with it. You cannot take
the principle of Law and the principle of Grace and blend those two
together. They are like oil and water–they will never mix. If
salvation is of works, it is not of Grace! And if it is of Grace, it is
not of works! You cannot go upon the two contrary principles of merit
and of favor.

4. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whoever of you are justified
by the Law; you are fallen from Grace. You have turned aside from it.
You are not standing with one foot upon Grace, and one foot upon the
Law, but you have gone right away from Grace. You must cleave to one or
the other. If you take the Law to be your hope, you must keep to
it–and the end will be that you will die in despair.

5, 6. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by
faith. [See Sermon #1228, Volume 21–salvation by faith AND THE WORK OF
THE SPIRIT.] For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails anything,
nor uncircumcision, but faith which works by love. [See Sermons #1553,
Volume 26–faith working by love and

#1750, Volume 29–THE LUTHER SERMON AT EXETER HALL.] It is not any rite

and it is not the neglect of any rite which can produce righteousness.
It is as easy to trust in your non-observance of a ceremony as to trust
in the ceremony, itself, and it will be quite as delusive. It is faith
in Christ that brings righteousness– the "faith which works by love."

7. You did run well; who did hinder you that you should not obey the
truth? "You Galatians seemed to receive the Gospel very readily and to
be very earnest in obeying it. What has caused you to turn aside to the
old legal righteousness? You are very changeable, very fickle. You
seemed very energetic in running the Christian race–whatever has got
in your way? 'Who did hinder you?' Somebody or other must have done
so."

8. This persuasion comes not from Him that calls you. "It does not come
from God. He called you to faith in His dear Son and to all those
virtues and Graces which naturally spring from the root of faith.
Somebody else has called you aside, some false shepherd who is but a
wolf in sheep's clothing–and who would destroy you if he could."

9. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. One false doctrine very soon
sours all your belief–the whole lump is leavened with it. If you have
a wrong ground of confidence, you are altogether wrong.

10. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that you will be none
otherwise minded: but he that troubles you shall bear His judgment,
whoever he is.Depend upon it, every man who troubles a Church with
false doctrine is amenable to the High Court above! And, sooner or
later, he may expect even a temporal judgment here below.

11. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer
persecution? Then is the offense of the Cross

ceased [See Sermon #2594, Volume 44–"THE OFFENSE OF THE CROSS."] "The

offense of the Cross" is that it sets up faith as the Infinite Merit of
Christ's Atonement and knocks down all confidence in outward ritual and
ceremonies. Paul says that if he had preached the flesh-pleasing
doctrines of men, he would not have been persecuted–and the fact that
he waspersecuted was a proof that he was standing fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ had made him free!

12. I would they were even cut themselves off which trouble you.
Excommunicated and put out of the Church? No, it would be better if
they were even dead rather than that they should live to spread such
evil in a Christian Church! Sometimes when we think of the interests of
immortal souls, we are apt to grow indignant, and rightly so, towards
willfully false teachers!

13. For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only do not use
liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.Do
not let liberty become license. Do not say, "I may do this or that, and
therefore I will do it because it pleases me." You are not to do
anything because it pleases you, but you are to do everything because
it pleases God! When a man is no longer a slave to sin, or self, or
Satan, let him begin to serve his brethren–"By love serve one
another."

14. For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, You shall
love your neighbor as yourself The legal spirit is all for
expansion–it multiplies its commands and lays down its ritual for this
and that, and the other. But the Gospel spirit is all for condensation.
It has condensed the whole Law into a single word, that is, "love."

15. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not
consumed by one another.This man finds fault. The other must have his
own way. A third is for something quite new. A fourth is for nothing
but what is antique. And so they fall to squabbling and quarrelling.

16. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. Be obedient to that great principle of the Spirit
which goes with the Doctrine of Grace and salvation by faith, and then
you will not be obedient to that lusting of the flesh which is in you
by nature.

17. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the
flesh: and these are contrary, the one to the other: so that you cannot
do the things that you would.You are pulled about by two contrary
forces–you are dragged downward by the flesh–and you are drawn upward
by the Spirit.

18. But if you are led of the Spirit you are not under the Law.The
Spirit never brings the soul into bondage! The terrors and the fears
which come of legal slavery are not the work of the Spirit of God.
Where He works, holiness is delight and the service of God is a
continual joy. Oh, that we may be thus led of the Spirit!

19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest.They are clear, plain,
self-condemned.

19-21. Which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation,
wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envying, murder, drunkenness,
reveling and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also
told you in timepast, that they which do such things shall not inherit
the Kingdom of God. Observe that the Gospel gives no toleration to sin.
Some people tell us that the Doctrine of Faith is not practical, but
they know better although they say that. They have only to observe
those who are actuated by the principle of faith and they will find
them abounding in good works–while the men who are swayed by the
principle of Law talk a great deal about works, but have little enough
of them in practice! The Gospel denounces sin, yes, and kills it! It
gives us the force with which we fight against it and overcome it.

22, 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, [See Sermons #1582,
Volume 27–FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT–JOY and #1782, Volume 30–THE FIRST
FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.] peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,

faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no Law.Either human
or Divine–everybody is agreed that these things are all good.

24. And theey that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the
affection and lusts. Condemned it to die, nailed it up to the Cross and
kept it in a dying, mortifying posture.

25. If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit. If our
spiritual life is the result of a Divine work, let our actions be in
harmony with it–"If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the
Spirit."

26. Let us not be desirous of vainglory. We call it glory, but it is
vainglory. It is marred by vanity if it arises from anything done by
us. Glory for you or for me because of anything that we can do is too
absurd an idea to be entertained for a moment! "Let us not be desirous
of vainglory"–

26. Provoking one another. For whenever a man is proud, and blustering,
and vainglorious, he is sure to provoke somebody or other–and then
they who are so provoked fall into another sin–the sin of–

26. Envying one another. O Brothers and Sisters, let us try to get over
all this and reach out to that blessed state of love which will bring
us peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!